Few were expecting
World War Z to be a hit, but the $111M worldwide debut went a long way in quieting the critics who had written it off months ago. It's also inspired Paramount and Brad Pitt to
start planning for a sequel, possibly following up on the original plan to make this a trilogy. That had been the idea back before a production best described as chaotic, with multiple rewrites and reshoots that got it bumped from a December 2012 date down to this summer. Part of the issue surrounded the film's ending, which is still being looked at as a major flaw in the story. But now we're learning what the plan had been before, and some of it is pretty terrible, while other aspects are more in-line with Max Brooks' novel. Ahoy, spoilers ahead!
A story at
The Huffington Post reveals some of the script changes made by Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard, most of which involved adding some badly needed human elements involving the Lane family: A scene in which Gerry (Pitt) and his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) are woken up by their children was added; the family eating breakfast while reports of a "rabies" outbreak hit the TV news; Gerry phoning Karin on the plane from South Korea to Jerusalem; and one scene in which Gerry pulls over their RV to help his daughter through an asthma attack. How the film could have held together even remotely without these moments is beyond me. It can be argued it still doesn't have enough scenes such as these.
The bulk of the issues with the production stemmed from problems with the final act, which has Gerry and Israeli soldier Segen (Daniella Kertesz) crash landing at a W.H.O. facility, where he discovers that zombies won't attack those who are terminally ill. Trapped in a lab, he injects himself with numerous viruses, becomes invisible to their senses, and escapes. He then makes his way back to his family, located at a camp in Nova Scotia, and spreads the word that the way to beat the zombies is to infect people with dangerous but not life-threatening diseases. Not really a solution, but the film makes sure to say the war isn't over, just in case they want to make a sequel or something.
The original ending, revealed by
Movies.com and
Vanity Fair, is considerably darker and never would have made the PG-13 cut. The plane Gerry and Segen were on is headed towards Moscow, where it lands safely and the two are immediately forced to serve as armed soldiers in the Russian military...
"The elderly and the sick are executed and the healthy people, including a very shaken Gerry, are immediately drafted into armed service, though not before one particularly nasty Russian soldier takes Gerry’s cell phone. The story then jumps forward an unknown amount of time and we catch up with Gerry, who now has a full beard and has been a part of Russia’s zombie-clearing squad at least long enough for it to have changed to winter. He looks almost dead inside, but the reality is that over this time he’s become an experienced and ruthless zombie killer, and he’s the leader of his own equally capable unit."This eventually leads to one of the major action sequences that never made the final cut, which is the massive Battle of Red Square. Gerry also figures out that the zombies can't deal with the cold weather, and informs his General that all Russia needs to do is hunker down and let the winter do the job. There's also a weird subplot involving a cruel Russian soldier who steals Gerry's phone (his only means of reaching his wife), and tries to force Segen into his company.
The final version of the film bears practically no resemblance to the novel, but the Russian winter scenario actually is a part of Brooks' novel, just presented as a first-hand account from someone who survived the outbreak.
Another element from the book that was changed significantly, but was ultimately left out of the film, involved Matthew Fox's character. Yes, Fox was in the film for a hot second as a Navy SEAL who saves Gerry and his family. His scenes were mostly removed, but if they had been left in it would have changed the film's entire tenor. After getting his phone back, Gerry calls Karin and tells her about how the cold affects the zombies. Not that it matters to her, because she's now stuck in a sweltering refugee camp in the Everglades, and it's one of those camps where the only way to survive is to trade something. Unfortunately, all Karin has to trade is herself, so she's whoring herself out to stay alive. She doesn't tell Gerry about any of that, though. Nor does she tell him that she's in a reluctant relationship with Fox's soldier character. The soldier calls Gerry on the phone and tells him to start a life elsewhere because he's with Karin now, but Gerry doesn't buy it, and we see him and Segen journeying until they find a boat. The film ends with them invading the American shore like they were storming the beaches of Normandy, all in an effort to get Karin back.
This would have gone a long way in setting up a sequel, but it would be a sequel nobody would want to see. Neither version ends with a cure to the outbreak, so that's not the issue. It's that the first film would have been so depressing few would want to come back for a second helping. It's likely that a good many of these scenes were shot, causing the budget to balloon to over $200M, and hopefully we'll get to see some of them on the Blu-Ray.
I'm torn as to whether it would have made for a worse film overall. As mentioned earlier, the cut scenes were in the book in different forms, and they went a long way in establishing how the zombie outbreak was affecting human society beyond just a lot of people dying. We never see any of that in the finished version, which is a straight A to B story given little room to maneuver.
World War Z probably was never meant to be a movie. It's too complicated and thoughtful, and the only way it ended up working was by changing everything it was about.
. The film stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Marc Forster, detailing the aftermath of a global zombie war. 
actor will play a role similar to that of the returning Joan Allen and Albert Finney, meaning he'll likely be a part of whatever this new, darker version of Treadstone is. He joins Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Ed Norton, and Oscar Isaac. [
's Tye Sheridan is said to be up for the role of the kid. Another strong choice for McConaughey, who appears to be turning his career around from playing bare chested dopes. [
), and director Marc Forster(
). Straczynski's script was re-written by Matthew Carnahan, Forster was rumored to be out of a job. It's all been a big war of attrition, so to speak. Don't even get me started on the budgetary issues. That could be another article in itself.
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